Everton defender Phil Jagielka has controversially claimed that England’s players prefer working with Roy Hodgson than previous manager Fabio Capello.
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Hodgson took over from the legendary Italian in 2012, and despite leading the side through two mostly unsuccessful major championships, Jagielka is on likes his current boss’s methods, as he appreciates a less authoritative managerial approach.
The centre-half is quoted in the Daily Mirror as saying: “Sometimes we’ve had managers in the past who have ruled it like a headmaster sort of role, maybe been a little bit too strict.”
“I’m not going to sit here and slag him (Capello) off, but it’s a different way of doing things. He’s had fantastic success with that style during his managerial career, but it was difficult sometimes. You’d walk past him and not know where you stood. It would make the weeks a bit more difficult, and you’d be on eggshells sometimes walking round.”
“Sometimes there can be too many rules. If he wanted no-one to have ketchup there was no ketchup, it was as simple as that. Roy allows us ketchup, if we want!”
Jagielka has been used regularly by Hodgson, who has helped the 32-year-old rack up 34 England caps to date – in which he has notched three goals. Jagielka’s club-form has been less than outstanding in 2014/15, but with John Terry retired from international football, and Man United duo Phil Jones and Chris Smalling yet to fulfil their potential, he’s still a practical certainty for Hodgson’s squads…
England play Lithuania this weekend in a bid to cement their place at the top of the qualifying group – and follow it up with a friendly versus Italy next week.